Bombs, Duels and Dangerous Spies
by Unique Chimera
Summary: A darker take on the world of Duel Monsters, where nothing is as it seems and everyone is a badass. Seriously. Spy/Assassin!Syrus, Pyro!Alexis, Manipulative Bastard Older Mokuba. Chapter 2 has been updated and is VERY different from the first version. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

The sun beat down on the five students as they walked through the glass-enclosed halls of Duel Academy. They were the only people in this particular corridor, and as they approached the chancellor's office each one held a different expression on their face.

Alexis Rhodes, the strongest female duelist in the Academy despite being a freshman, was the picture of regal dignity.

Chazz Princeton grimaced in annoyance as he straightened his Obelisk Blue uniform.

Bastion Misawa, Duel Academy's resident renaissance man, could barely restrain his wild, insatiable curiosity.

Jaden Yuki had a huge grin plastered on his face, skipping through the hallway with his trademark enthusiasm.

And as for the last student…

"Remind me why you're here again, Truesdale?" Princeton sneered. He had to bend down to jab his finger into the fifth student's chest; while he was the same age as the other four freshmen, Syrus Truesdale wasn't even five feet tall.

The Vehicroid user cowered under Chazz's sneer. "I-I-I don't know!" he stuttered. Jaden put his arm around the boy. "Don't worry! I'm sure there's a good reason for the chancellor wants to see you even though you're bottom of the class!"

Alexis sighed. _Oblivious as usual, eh? _"It's not like _you _have much of a reason to be here either, Yuki," she said. "This meeting is only for the top students in the freshman class. Crowler voided your entrance exam scores, so there's no way your grades could be the best in the Academy."

Jaden only grinned wider. "But if I hadn't pissed that cross-dressing weirdo off, then I _would_ be the highest-scoring freshman! Take that!"

"Can it, you two," said Bastion, clearly frustrated. "We're almost there."

* * *

If any normal Duel Academy student had seen a posse of black-clad figures rush at them from the ceiling, they would have gone pale from fear and sprinted away from them as fast as possible.

However, these were no ordinary students.

Alexis pulled a small bomb from her backpack, lit it, and hurled it at the attackers. "GET DOWN!" she screamed as the resulting explosion blossomed in the air.

A sliver of gold pierced Jaden's brown eyes as he whispered and raised his hand. Tendrils of darkness rose from the shadows, strangling the assailants.

Syrus drew two guns and proceeded to fire at the mysterious aggressors.

Chazz somehow pulled a rapier from his pocket, using it to skewer one of the goons.

Bastion Misawa smirked and edged away from his classmates.

In just a few minutes, all twenty attackers and a good portion of the landscape had been destroyed by the four freshmen. None of the aforementioned freshmen had even broken a sweat; however, they were all quite surprised by their ordeal.

"How did you-" they all said simultaneously, then turned to one another in confusion and shock.

Bastion walked up to them and sighed. "You are all _so _oblivious, you know that? It only took a bit of hacking to figure out who you all really were." He turned to Syrus. "However, I had _no _idea that you were the infamous Baby Dragon. Kudos to you."

Syrus smiled and removed his glasses, revealing cool, confident eyes. "It's amazing that someone like _you _could blow my cover just by watching me fight. I'm impressed." Bastion dipped his head, gracefully accepting the phrase.

Chazz sighed and pressed a button on his rapier, causing it to shrink into a small cartridge, a device that resembled a USB drive. "I believe some explanations are in order after this meeting," he said in a dry tone.

* * *

The white room seemed to function as an odd antechamber, for the door at the end of it lead to the chancellor's office. However, the plump, jovial chancellor was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a man wearing a yellow teacher's uniform in his mid twenties.

He looked up at the five shocked duelists, ran a hand through his waist-length black hair and grinned.

"Hello, everyone," said Mokuba Kaiba. "Why don't you all take a seat?"


	2. Chapter 2

Alexis's reaction upon seeing Mokuba Kaiba was incompatible with her typical collected dignity. She let out a guttural scream and grabbed him by the collar, her eyes wild with rage.

"You sick _bastard,_" she hissed. "Why do you need to do this? You've already ruined enough people's lives with your stupid wars and your stupid duels!" She gestured at the four boys, who were already seated. "They don't deserve this! _Nobody _deserves this! You can't…you can't…YOU HAVE NO RIGHT, you bastard! You have no right to throw _children _into bloodbaths!" She was screaming now, and her voice echoed eerily through the chancellor's office. With a surprising amount of strength, she picked Kaiba up and threw him onto the floor. She took a hand grenade out of her backpack. "Leave now and don't come back, or you'll taste the results of your cruel machinations."

Kaiba looked up at her with steely eyes. "I had no choice, young lady. If I had failed to recruit even _one _of our child duelists, then our cause would be lost and our planet eternally damned. They were very skilled, every one of them. They all knew the risks." His voice changed, becoming softer and more apologetic. "Even your brother knew what he was getting into. However, I am sorry for your loss, Alexis Rhodes. Atticus would have been a fine young man."

She snarled. "That doesn't change a _thing. _Now get out of here, now." Her fingers moved to the grenade's safety pin.

She was interrupted when she felt a cool pressure on the back of her head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Miss Rhodes," said Syrus coolly as he cocked his gun. The girl grimaced and lowered the grenade. Syrus led her to a seat as Kaiba stood up and brushed himself off. He looked at Alexis again. "You would do well to remember that I was barely older than your brother when it started," he said. He clapped his hands together. "Alright. The five of you are all gathered here because you all share something. You all know something about the true nature of the first international dueling tournaments—Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and so on. Bastion Misawa, since you had the _gall _to hack into KaibaCorp's servers to get this information, why don't you tell us about what happened all those years ago?"

Bastion gulped, and was visibly sweating. "What, did you think we'd not notice?" Mokuba asked with a sneer. "Come _on. _The only reason we let you go is because your intelligence would be valuable later, and we needed a blackmail tool. Continue."

Bastion took a deep breath and began to speak. "The force of order and the force of chaos have been battling each other since time immemorial. These forces would have wars periodically in different regions in the world; the victor would be able to control world until the next conflict. The precursor to today's Duel Monsters was created in an attempt to minimize the collateral damage and loss of innocents in these conflicts. The idea was that only a few people—exceptionally strong magicians who summoned spirits—would act as combatants for both sides, leaving bystanders and the surrounding landscape relatively untouched.

It worked, but at a price: combatants experienced extreme emotional trauma due to the stress of the war, and several combatants committed suicide the first time this method was used. In addition, both sides began extracting innocent souls to use as spirits in battle, which defeated the purpose of this combat system in the first place. After its first use five thousand years ago, the system was buried and stored away until Maximilian Pegasus unearthed tablets containing spirits in the Egyptian desert. He used these tablets to create our modern version of Duel Monsters and reinstating the Egyptian's combat system."

He looked up at Kaiba. "Do you have any water?" The older man nodded and handed him a bottle, which Bastion drank from greedily. Wiping his chin, he continued:

"The last war between order and chaos occurred around ten years ago; Duelist Kingdom and Battle City were both fronts for most of the key battles. It's unclear as to what happened during the final climactic battles, but almost every duelist in the professional leagues and most high-performing duelists in the junior leagues were recruited to participate in them. There appear to have been a lot of deceased and missing duelists after this battle, but I can't find exact statistics."

Finished, Bastion sighed and sunk into his chair.

Kaiba grinned. "Thank you, Bastion. Now," he said, addressing the whole group, "the next war between order and chaos is going to occur in about two months on this very island. You all have been chosen to participate. And _none _of you have a choice in the matter. Try to run and you'll have KaibaCorp and all its resources on your back. You're the most capable people we have and I can't afford to lose any of you."

"This war consists of seven one-on-one matches between you and the agents of chaos. I'll give you more details as the situation progresses. Jaden, you can use magic, correct?"

"U-um, yes. I only know a couple spells, though…"

"That's fine. I know something about the craft, so I'll be teaching you myself. Oh, and for the rest of you…"

An evil grin spread across his face.

"Sparring sessions start tomorrow. I hope you're ready."

* * *

**A/N: Hey, everyone! Unique Chimera here! Thank you so much to iloveyugiohGX93 and TheHero15 for reviewing! **

**I hope this chapter cleared up some confusion with the info-dumps. If it didn't and you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to PM me!**

**Sorry to disappoint anybody who was expecting a lot of action in this chapter, but there will be some fight sequences next chapter. There will be very little actual dueling in this series; most of the action comes from actual fights, but spirits will be summoned often during the story.**

**Alexis is one of many characters in the series who have been psychologically affected by the previous war; I wanted to portray the kinds of consequences throwing children at the essence of evil could have. Not every character from the original series survived; both Kaiba brothers and Yugi are definitely alive.**

**Mokuba is around 23 right now, and is the head of Ra Yellow. However, he disappeared from the public eye after the events of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, so few know what he looks like.**

**PLEASE review this and tell me if I'm doing a decent job! Thank you all so much for reading this!**


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